Dallas schools’ teacher morale at a low after workdays extended by 45 minutes

A new 45-minute work extension for Dallas ISD educators is disruptive and stressful — and has done little to directly benefit the students, some teachers say.

The extension was started this school year to ensure that teachers work a full eight hours. The change, approved by trustees in January, took the workday from seven hours and 45 minutes to eight hours and 30 minutes.

Teachers initially protested the unpaid increase, saying they already work well beyond a regular school day to grade papers and prepare lessons.

The problem now, some teachers say, is that principals fill the time with busy work to comply with the new mandate. They say the time is used for memorizing the district’s core beliefs, reading self-help books and doing unnecessary paperwork. And it’s preventing them from working directly with students or meeting with parents after school.

Dallas ISD board President Lew Blackburn said he has received at least 100 teacher complaints through email and phone calls. In response, he said, trustees will discuss the extension at Thursday’s board briefing to determine if it needs to be modified.

“This will give the board a chance to talk about what’s going on,” Blackburn said. “Sometimes we have some consequences that we haven’t thought about. I don’t mind going back and revisiting a policy, especially when it comes back to possibly impacting our students.”

Blackburn said the discussion also gives district administrators a chance to weigh in.

Some teachers say problems with the extended day are exacerbated by stringent rules put in place by new Superintendent Mike Miles on how teachers should educate students. Some teachers have spoken out during public meetings or taken to blogs to relay their displeasure.

“Students and parents are begging us to begin servicing their children beyond the 3:15 p.m. bell,” teacher Rochelle Menendez said during a recent Dallas ISD board meeting. “And sadly we have to turn them down and explain that we have to attend professional development five days a week until 4:30 p.m. We can no longer establish open lines of communication with parents because we cannot meet after school. Our bonds with the community are dissolving.”

Some parents also have voiced concerns with the changes.

Alicia Love and her husband, John, are considering moving their daughter from Robert E. Lee Elementary School in East Dallas to a private school. Alicia Love cites among concerns: low teacher morale, changes by the new administration, the departure of a couple of her daughter’s teachers and the impact of the extended workday.

“I used to be able to go in after class and talk to my child’s teacher. Now, it’s a totally different ballgame,” she said. “I see the morale turning. I don’t blame the school. Teachers are totally stressed.”

Miles, who took over as superintendent after the extended workday was approved, has acknowledged morale problems. “My sense is that we have low morale as a whole compared to what might be a normal year in Dallas ISD,” he said.

He cited contributing factors including the work extension, a reduction of personal leave days for teachers from 10 to eight and no teacher pay raises for two years. Teachers recently received a one-time payment of $750 in an attempt to boost morale.

Miles has said he has staffers reviewing the use of the extended day so teachers don’t feel the time is being wasted.

New rules implemented by Miles also have been cited as a contributing factor to low morale because some teachers feel they’re burdensome and unnecessary micromanagement. They include:

•Frequent spot observations in which supervisors wander into classrooms and follow up with a discussion.

• “Demonstrations of learning” in which the teacher must develop ways for students to demonstrate their understanding of a lesson objective during intervals throughout each school day.

•”Multiple response strategies” in which the teacher must solicit responses from all students using various methods, such as having them hold up response cards.

•Updating lesson objectives on a frequent basis.

Rena Honea, president of Alliance-AFT teachers association in Dallas, said teachers have less time to prepare for their lessons with all the new requirements. And, she said, some teachers feel the spot observations are being done punitively.

“I think morale is at its lowest point that I’ve seen in this district for a long time,” Honea said. “The expectations of what is being asked for this year, they are unrealistic to some degree. There’s a whole lot of planning and development going on, but the teachers don’t have time to do the preparation work because they’re totally exhausted.”

WHAT THEY SAID: Teachers respond

The Dallas Morning News asked Dallas ISD teachers to weigh in on a 45-minute extension that was added to their workday this school year. Eighty-five responses were received, most submitted anonymously. Most cited the same concerns. Here is what some had to say:

• “I have worked as an educator in Dallas ISD for the last 18 years and have never hated my job until this year. … I am EXHAUSTED and have serious plans to leave the district.”

• “I don’t like the fact that teachers can no longer decide how to use their after-school time. Many of us scheduled conference times with parents right after school. Also, we scheduled our doctor’s appointments so that we would not miss a full/half workday. … After-school care is becoming expensive for those of us who have children in day care that charge extra for the extended time we now have to work without extra pay. … We are only humans who are expected to be superheroes on fixed budgets and micromanaged time.”

• “There is no time to prepare for your students. We meet every morning and every afternoon. Teachers are stressed and do not like coming to work. … Many teachers are crying because we have so much to do.”

• “I always work the extra 45 minutes and beyond … but now we have less time to work in our classrooms to prepare for each day because we have meetings in the morning. The ‘required’ extra 45 minutes may look good on paper, but the structure means we are doing less that helps our students and more that ‘looks good to the public and higher-ups.’”

• “With teachers meeting every day after school, there is no time to work with students who may need one-on-one instruction or time to contact parents at the end of the school day before teachers go home. After all, teachers do have a life [and families] after school.”

• “I was not really concerned about the 45-minute extension when we were informed last year because I was already at work until 5:30 or 6 every day. However, I am now staying until 6:30 or 7 every night because we now have even less time to work due to the meetings after school. … Those meetings are in no way beneficial to our students.”

• “Some nights I haven’t gotten home to my family until after 7:30. I eat dinner, pull out my schoolwork that I couldn’t complete during the day (because of meetings and the fact that we aren’t supposed to sit down), and I get back to work. I’m exhausted.”

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